{"product_id":"ponti-9781501173127","title":"Ponti","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn award-winning novel about the value of friendships in present-day Singapore--a \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003estirring debut...relatable yet unsettling  that] smartly captures earnest teenage myopathy through a tumultuous high school relationship\" (\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review).\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"I am Miss Frankenstein, I am the bottom of the bell curve.\"\u003c\/i\u003e So declares Szu, a teenager living in a dark, dank house on a Singapore cul-de-sac, at the beginning of this richly atmospheric and endlessly surprising tale of non-belonging and isolation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFriendless and fatherless, Szu lives in the shadow of her mother Amisa, once a beautiful actress--who gained fame for her portrayal of a ghost--and now a hack medium performing s ances with her sister in a rusty house. When Szu meets the privileged, acid-tongued Circe, an unlikely encounter develops into a fraught friendship that will haunt them both for decades to come. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith remarkable emotional acuity, dark comedy, and in vivid prose, Sharlene Teo's \u003ci\u003ePonti\u003c\/i\u003e traces the suffocating tangle the lives of four misfits, women who need each other as much as they need to find their own way. It is \"at once a subtle critique of the pressures of living in a modern Asian metropolis; a record of the swiftness and ruthlessness with which Southeast Asia has changed over the last three decades; a portrait of the old juxtaposed with the new (and an accompanying dialogue between nostalgia and cynicism); an exploration of the relationship between women against the backdrop of social change; and, occasionally, a love story--all wrapped up in the guise of a teenage coming-of-age novel...Teo is brilliant\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Simon \u0026amp; Schuster\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/24\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781501173127\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.60lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.10h x 5.50w x 0.90d","brand":"Sharlene Teo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42059066540213,"sku":"9781501173127","price":14.45,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_43ecb198-8e5d-4d35-8d4f-ff1eef68f82d.jpg?v=1650340959","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/ponti-9781501173127","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}